Establishing a Program Management Office

Opportunity

Every three years, the PMO function within a market leading international manufacturer is refreshed and staffed with new professionals from a wide array of functions and departments within the business. Although all of the team are strong, dedicated and capable, they have not worked together as a team before and have varying levels of experience and skills in project and program management.

Solution

A series of one and half day team workshops were developed and facilitated with the PMO team over the course of several years to develop team unity, establish operating norms, and train members on proven best practices. Individual Program Managers and the PMO leaders were also coached one on one to help them achieve their goals and grow as professionals. Custom PMO templates, frameworks, processes and cadence were developed and rolled out to the team. Additional ‘client’ facing workshops were developed and PMO team members coached on how to facilitate those sessions.

Outcome

Standard operating cadence was established. Team trust and accountability was developed. The team’s ability to program manage the work streams they were responsible for improved. Work stream leaders and project managers began looking to the PMO for guidance and support. Over $1 billion in operational benefits were realized.